Who is Sriram Krishnan? Trump picks Indian American entrepreneur as senior policy advisor on AI

Donald Trump has picked Indian American entrepreneur, venture capitalist and author Sriram Krishnan as Senior White House Policy Advisor on Artificial Intelligence. In an official statement where he announced many other appointments, the president-elect said, “Sriram Krishnan will serve as the Senior Policy Advisor for Artificial Intelligence at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.”

Trump added, “Working closely with David Sacks, Sriram will focus on ensuring continued American leadership in A.I., and help shape and coordinate A.I. policy across Government, including working with the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Sriram started his career at Microsoft as a founding member of Windows Azure.”

Who is Sriram Krishnan?

Krishnan studiedat SRM Valliammai Engineering College in Kattankulathur, Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu. He began his career at Microsoft, where he contributed to the development of Windows Azure, working on its APIs and services. He is the author of the book Programming Windows Azure for O’Reilly.

Krishnan joined Facebook in 2013, where he played a significant role in scaling the company’s mobile app download ads business. He later also worked at Snap. Krishnan worked at Twitter (now X) until 2019, where he collaborated with Elon Musk on restructuring the platform. He became a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) in 2021. Later in 2023, he led the firm’s first international office in London.

Krishnan, an investor, is also an advisor in the Indian fintech company Cred. He is known for co-hosting a podcast – The Aarthi and Sriram Show – with his wife Aarthi Ramamurthy.

After Trump’s announcement, Krishnan took to X to thank the president-elect. “I’m honored to be able to serve our country and ensure continued American leadership in AI working closely with @DavidSacks,” he wrote.

Sacks also shared Trump’s announcement on X, saying, “This extraordinary team is a testament to the amazing talent that President Trump is attracting to his Administration!”